Israeli Boy Finds Tablet Immortalizing Victorious Canaanite and His Naked Captive
Nothing remains of the 3,500-year-old Canaanite mud-city of Yerza but scattered pottery and this gloating triumph from the past, now found by a 6-year-old boy
Archaeology
Did Our Drumming Contribute to Beating the Neanderthals?
Groups that drum together bond and can better perform tasks together even later on, Bar-Ilan musicologists and psychologists demonstrate
Village Where Jesus’ Disciples May Have Lived Flooded by Rising Sea of Galilee
The putative Church of the Apostles is now in a lagoon peopled by catfish but the ruins where Jesus’ disciples may have lived haven’t been damaged, reassures archaeologist Motti Aviam
Cats Domesticated Humans to Get Our Mice, Archaeologists Prove
The spread of the house mouse from Near East to Europe coincided with the advent of early farming and grain storage. Guess who came along for the ride?
Enigmatic Rooms Cut Into the Bedrock Discovered Under Western Wall
Checking beneath the floor of a Byzantine structure in ancient Jerusalem, the archaeologists found a strange system of rooms carved in the early Roman period
What Ear Infections Going Back 15,000 Years Tell Us About Human Health
But spike of ear infections in Chalcolithic could indicate that adding dairy to our diet gave us more than a calcium boost
Israeli Scholars Discover Corrections, Erasures, Revisions in Oldest Biblical Manuscript
Analysis of Leningrad Codex shows that about a millennium ago, there were several different versions of the Bible that evolved over time
A Tooth Changes Everything We Know About Humans Reaching Europe
Remains of a modern human 45,000 years old found in the Balkans show our ancestors coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe for around 8,000 years
War Trophy of a Roman Soldier? Rare Bar Kochba Coin Found in Jerusalem
Out of over 22,000 ancient coins found in Jerusalem, only four were ‘minted’ by the Bar Kochba rebels – who evidently never made it into the city
What Happened to Neolithic China’s Farmers? Bad Hare Days
Isotopic evidence in hare bones shows that a significant number switched to eating millet cultivated by early farmers. Were they stealing, or domesticated?
A Perfect Storm: How Early Christian Farming in the Negev Collapsed
Israeli archaeologists date the remnants of flourishing agriculture in the desert and discover exactly when, and possibly why, it came to a bitter end
Greek Patriarchate Sues to Close Jerusalem Museum on Land It Claims to Own
Patriarchate wants archaeology museum operating since the 1990s shut, claiming it didn't know it ever opened
Fossil of Moment Jurassic Squid Attacked Fish Found in England
It’s incredibly rare for the predatory pounce to be preserved for eternity in stone: paleontologists suspect the attacker choked on its herring dinner 200 million years ago
Particle Accelerator to Help Read Dead Sea Scrolls Too Fragile to Unroll
WATCH: How oldest Torah scroll found in a synagogue was read despite being burned to a crisp ■ Now manuscripts from the Second Temple Period that are too brittle to even touch may be deciphered using cutting-edge physics
Rare Butchery Scene Found in 30,000-year-old Rock Art in India
Scenes of hunting in the Paleolithic are common, but this is only the third known instance in which the aftermath with innards on display is shown too
Israeli Archaeologists Find Hidden Pattern at ‘World’s Oldest Temple’ Göbekli Tepe
Neolithic hunter-gatherers who erected massive monoliths in central Turkey 11,500 years ago had command of geometry and a much more complex society than previously thought, archaeologists say
Prehistoric Peoples of the Baltic Had Oddly Broad Cuisines
Archaeological surprise: Hunter-gatherers of the region had pottery thousands of years before settling down – and an unexpected range of culinary culture. But without animals, where did they get dairy from?
Making Bowls in Biblical Gath Was Man’s Work, Fingerprints Indicate
There are differences between male and female fingerprints, and the potters of Early Bronze Age Gath didn’t always trouble to wipe them off their work
Human Figure Detected on 14,000-year-old Burial Slab in Israel
The Natufians were the first to bury their dead in cemeteries, albeit in shallow graves, and mysterious slabs were placed in and above some graves. One found in Raqefet Cave bore an enigmatic engraving that may hint at elaborate ritual
Israeli Archaeologists Solve Mystery of Prehistoric Stone Balls
Shaped stone spheres were part of early humanity’s toolkit for over two million years, but what exactly they were used for has remained an enigma. Until now
2,400-year-old ‘Passover Letter’ Shows Evolution of Jewish Ritual
A letter from a high official in Jerusalem to the Jewish garrison on Elephantine in fifth century B.C.E. Egypt is the oldest known ex-biblical account of the Pesach ritual
Paleontological Surprise: Monkeys Sailed From Africa to Americas Not Once but Twice
There were two early monkey lineages in South America, not one. One lineage became the adorable platyrrhini and one went extinct
Neanderthals Could Make String: Oldest Rope Known Found in France
Could Neanderthals make rafts? Three-ply cord fragment found in the Abri du Maras cave is 41,000 to 52,000 years old and indicates complexity in thinking and manufacture
Archaeologists Crack Secrets of Deadly Ancient Trade in Decorated Ostrich Eggs
Why the ancients used eggs from savage wild ostriches rather than innocuous tame ones is unclear, but ornate eggshells from the Middle East were prized by elites across the Mediterranean thousands of years before Easter was a thing
Were Hebrews Ever Slaves in Ancient Egypt? Yes
Ancient Egypt had intimate relations with Canaan, and most of the Semitic peoples migrating there would have been Canaanite. But not all.
Oldest Human Genetic Data Gleaned From 1.8-million-year-old Tooth
Sequencing from a second tooth ‘only’ 800,000 years old provided researchers with key information on the position of the enigmatic Homo antecessor in our evolutionary tree
Archaic Humans Still Half in the Trees Coexisted With Other Species Who Walked
Researchers studying fossils in Sterkfontein Cave, South Africa deduce that an older Australopithecine was built for bipedalism, while a Robustus living a million years later both walked and climbed trees
Native Americans in Ancient Florida Developed Pre-electricity Fish Storage
Archaeologists deduce purpose of huge walled fish ponds on an artificial island built by the powerful Calusa kingdom over 1,000 years ago
Prehistoric New Guineans Discovered Farming Independently
New Guinean highlanders developed agriculture a millennia before their neighbors, and without the cultural developments marking the Neolithic transition elsewhere in the world
Pending 'Coronavirus Apocalypse' Impels Man to Return Ballista Stolen From Jerusalem
While cleaning for Passover, the unnamed repentant dusted off the 2,000-year-old weapon he had stolen as a rebellious teenager from the City of David and gave it back to the antiquities authority
Oldest Circular Structure Discovered – and It’s Made of Mammoth Bones
Mysterious bone circle built 25,000 years ago from the remains of at least 60 mammoths seems to have been too big – and smelly – to be a dwelling, archaeologists posit
After Dead Sea Forgeries Exposed, How Do We Know the Scrolls in Israel Are Authentic?
All scroll fragments at the Museum of the Bible in Washington turn out to be fakes: Experts explain how we know the massive trove of scrolls held in Jerusalem is genuine
Ancient Art Found in Basque Country Changes Understanding of Prehistoric Society
Very faded but finally noticed, the Basque region cave paintings show that distinct Paleolithic cultures survived cheek by jowl for millennia
Aboriginal Australians Shocked by Volcanic Eruption 37,000 Years Ago Could Still Be Telling the Tale
When people reached Australia remains controversial, but the myth of a giant who turns into a volcano could be the oldest true story in the world
Olives First Domesticated 7,000 Years Ago in Israel, Study Says
Archaeological evidence and fossil pollen from around the Mediterranean show villagers in the hills of the Galilee were the first to cultivate olives